Okay, I finally managed to find some time to surf for gaming crap, and here’s what I found. First up, mostly Sega related stuff…
- I guess the big news for me is that OutRun 2: Coast 2 Coast (or is it Special Tours? I forget) is coming to the Xbox after-all! Along with the (previously announced) PS2 and PSP. I’m just happy that its coming to the Xbox since the first game was such an awesome port, and this looks to be just as stunning…
… Though I have to admit. PS2 version looks damn good as well, as does the PSP version.
- But as always, when Sega does something good, they fuck up something else; Sega Rally 2006 was just released in Japan, and it apparently sucks. Most complaints are directed towards graphic, in which there’s really bad pop-up, and everything just looks all-around bland. Plus, controls is supposedly borked as well.
And as somewhat expected, the port of the first Sega Rally arcade game is decent, but not arcade perfect (much like the PS2 port of Virtua Fighter 2). You can see a vid of it in action here. But considering that the original arcade game was never that pretty to begin with (at least compared with arcade Virtua Fighter 2 and Daytona USA), its hardly noticeable. Its to the point that when people first saw footage, many thought it was a port of the Saturn game, but its not. Just goes to show how amazing the Saturn port was.
- Speaking of the Saturn, I may finally have to become a PC owner very soon. It seems what was once thought was impossible has been achieved; 100% perfect Saturn emulation is just on the horizon. Here’s a thread at the GAF that has all the details (plus pictures).
- Check out some first time ever seen footage and artwork from the long cancelled 3D Sonic game, Sonic X-Treme!
This super early demo to demonstrates Sonic moving in three dimensions. it sorta looks like the game Sonic 3D Blast! Hmm….
And here’s some actual game footage featuring a female character who goes by Tiara.
You can see more of the character here.
- Speaking of, according to IGN, there’s an exclusive Sonic game headed towards the Revolution as well. So I guess it won’t be a straight-up port of the upcoming Xbox 360/PS3 game. That’s good… the less port for the Rev, the better. But I’d much rather have a new NiGHTS on the new Nintendo machine.
- Word is that Virtua Fighter 5 is definitely PS bound. Hardly surprising, but good to know.
- Hey, remember the old Sega CD fighting game, Eternal Champions? And remember their “crazier than Mortal Kombat” finishing moves (which, btw, were even fucking harder to pull-off)?
Well here they all are, and trust me, if you love stupidly excessive violence you must watch these!!!
- Time for some more (bad) Xbox news: for those who pre-ordered their system way back when and still haven’t gotten it, will have to wait a bit longer. EDIT: Here’s another one, and its saying that folks will have to wait till spring! Yeah, best launch ever, yup Microsoft.
Plus there’s the HD-DVD “strap-on” pack that I’m sure most people have heard about. Basically, its some sort of hardware add-on that will allow the system to play HD-DVD discs. That’s great… so people who just spent $400 on a “next-gen” system will have to spend an additional $150-200+ (and that’s being extremely conservative) to play actual next-gen media. At least when Sega introduced the Sega CD and the 32X, the Genesis still had plenty of stuff coming out for it. Then again, some feel that traditional DVD9 might be good enough for the 360.
There also word floating around that there might even be a Blu-Ray (HD-DVD’s main competition in the next-gen format wars, and once which almost everyone universally agrees will be the winner, hence another reason why MS is being so stupid) add-on as well, but I believe that’s been dispelled.
- Speaking of the media getting the facts wrong, I’m sure some of you have heard about the MetalGearSolid.org suicide by now. Long story short, some kid, identified as “Mitchell S.”, decided to kill himself, and told everyone at its message board, plus one at GameFAQs.com. People on both ends pleaded him to not do it, but finally he decided to go through with it, and shortly afterwards he left a message stating to the effect, and died.
Then a few days later, the tragedy was reported by the mainstream press, but with many factual errors. First off, he didn’t kill himself live, in front of everyone via a webcam, as reported. Also, those who knew him (at least, on the message boards) knew the kid wasn’t kidding and took it seriously, and did not treat it like a joke. Then there’s the issue of the website being shut down by the government, which is confusing to say the least; why in the hell would the government do such a thing.
But it was revealed by the webmaster of MetalGearSolid.org that the plug was pulled due to excessive bandwidth, no doubt due to the amount of attention brought forth by the suicide. The host did the pulling and gave the media the bullshit excuse in order to free themselves from any sort of libel. He also stated that they did not leak the news to the press and wanted to keep in under-wraps, out of respect, but since Mitchell told folks at GameFAQs, and its far less tight-knit community, it got out. And not surprisingly, many have taken the opportunity to mock the suicide.
My two-cents? Its sad obviously. I guess my point in reporting all this is, one should never believe anything they read online, even if its CNN. I suppose it goes without saying, but there’s no harm in repeating it.
- Okay, here’s something also sad, but more-so on the pathetic scale: here’s the story of some 9 year old’s obsession with the PSP. Parts of it is cute, such as him wanting one so bad that he would create scale versions of the system made out of paper, which he then sells to his friends! I suppose the weird part is of him saving every picture he can of the system, and the meticulous drawings that he produces from them. But then again, back in high school, I used to obsess over Sega to the point that I would doodle the Genesis, Sega CD, and 32X, in various makes and combinations, all during class, so I have no room to criticize.
But the ridiculous part is how the author asks for people to send money so he can buy the kid the system, plus I would have to assume a copy of Grand Theft Auto: Livery Stories, and people actually sent them cash! WTF?!?!
- Anyway, onto something else: sex. The first annual Sex in Video Games conference will talk place this summer, with the purpose of “exploring the business of digital erotic entertainment.
- On a related note: Resident Evil for the DS allows for inappropriate touching.
- For those who don’t know, the latest Rockman (Mega Man) series has been revealed for the DS: Rockman ZX. In it, you play as two different Rockman-ish characters, a boy and a girl:
I’m not totally sure what the story is, but from what I hear, it involves some sort of liquid metal which has been excavated which presumably the kids (and the bad guys, naturally) use to transform and empower themselves. Given this, as well as how Zero 4 ended, and the art-style, I would have to assume that this is a follow-up to the Zero series.
- Time for some more live video game music, courtesy of the Famicom Band. Aside from some decent tunes, the vids are pretty entertaining as well; I normally cringe whenever seeing live game enspired “reenactments”, but I have to admit, this Punch-Out one is sorta fun.
- Anyone who collects video games is well aware that often that the box art for a Japanese game will be changed when released her to reflect Western tastes. Well, what about when American games for East? They get a similar sort of treatment, and in doing so, shows how poorly designed most of ours our, even if the art is technically good. Hell, I still don’t understand why their version of Backyard Wrestling is better.
- Recently, a big press conference from Nintendo was announced, and as expected, speculation ran rampant as to what was going to be discussed or possibly revealed. High on the list was the new of a re-designed DS. The conference has come and gone and there was no such announcement (though it is coming), but here’s one of the better mock-ups as to what it might look like. Like most, its better if you try not to think about it too much:
- A while back I posted a picture from a presentation that Keita Takahashi gave at the Game Developer’s Conference that showed an art project of his from college, that of a robot that transformed into a table. Well courtesy of this site, here’s a much better look at it:
- Ever heard of Samuri Champloo? The ultra stylish samurai tale from the creator of Cowboy Bebop (and which I believe plays on Adult Swim)? Well there’s a game coming out for it, of course, but unlike most titles based on a anime, this one looks to be more than just a cookie-cuter bore fest. Here’s an explanation of its rather unique play-mechanics, courtesy of its PR:
The core of the game’s unique combat system lies in the innovative integration of music and linked attacks. The players can choose an array of combos based on the different hip hop grooves that they can swap at will. Music tracks become collectible, opening an extensive assortment of linked attacks that can be implemented tactically during combat.
Two additional fighting modes accompany the music-combo combat system; the visually arresting “Tate” and “Trance” modes. When the tension gauge (fueled by a series of successful combos) is filled, the gamer will enter “Tate” mode where the samurai is faced with a lone opponent artfully staged in front of a vibrant Japanese screen. After initiating a combination of buttons to stay in “Tate,” the gamer can fulfill a hit meter to enter into “Trance.” At this point, the background changes to silhouettes and an unrelenting number of enemies will attack the player. The player must survive and cut down opponents without taking a number of hits until the music ends. If the player survives, he is rewarded with a new item or weapon. With these innovative modes, “Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked(TM)” is an original action title that melds hip hop attitude with the lyricism of the samurai warrior.
Admittedly the game doesn’t look very pretty (it practically screams PSone). Plus, its impossible to tell what’s going on (I can’t figure out what on screen is supposed to be there, and what’s debug code), but it sounds pretty interesting.
- Want to see someone beat Super Mario 64 in 16 minutes? Here ya go,
- And here’s the latest Rule of Rose trailer, this one finally featuring some gameplay.
- Time for both comics and Psychonauts. First up, a fan-based comic of the game.
Next, some comics by the folks who made the game, at Double Fine. If a strip about a pixelated barbarian, or astronauts, you can now knock yourself out.
- What’s better than some folks ripping other folks online for having poor taste? When they belong to a very small, a relatively small subset of the universe, even within their own hobby. And its even better if you know what the hell they’re talking about. So if you know about the MAME scene, check out these really bad attempts at MAME cabinets. Best line has to be… “Clue 4 U: Nobody uses 9 inch monitors in paradise. For the sake of Fuck, man.”
- That Godfather game is looking worse and worse each and every time…
- And as pointed out at Insert Credit, here’s a site that sells really cheesy Christian themed t-shirts. Of special note are their really badly designed game related ones, including one that features Mario sans mustache, and one that tries too hard to play around with the PlayStation logo.
- BTW, in case some of you have missed it, I recently did some news articles for the front-page, including the aforementioned live action/video game performance, as well art that was created via Unreal Tournament.
Also worth checking out is Chaz’s look at a puzzle game that was originally for the DS and how its being adapted to the GBA.
- Finally, have you ever wondered how Rez became available all of sudden via Game Quest Direct? Same with Gitaroo Man. Well, here’s the whole story behind it all, and its a pretty awesome one. Hey, anything that pisses off those asshole collectors on eBay the better. And trust me, they have been bitching up a storm about GQD.
The thing that pisses me off about video game collectors, other than the fact that they often don’t even play the games they profess to hold in such high regard (its the same thing with comic books, but on a far stupider level really), its that their basic m.o. is the less people can play a game, the better it is for them, which I just think is fucked up on so many levels. The bottom line is that good games (such as Rez, which should be played by as many people as possible). While it was nice to know that my favorite game was so highly sought after, and was going for a crazy amount of money on eBay, the truth is that it was getting proper exposure in deserved. But that’s changing, and like many others, I am ecstatic.
The article says that there might be a chance to see Saturn reprints, and while I think that’s a bit unrealistic for a variety of reasons, I would certainly love that as well.
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So MK & I have a new project a brewin’: Nerdiquette. Its basically self-help advice for nerds. Long story short, MK got me the URL as a birthday gift last year based on an idea I had in my head, but since then I’ve been so busy that I haven’t had the chance to do much, so she’s decided to take charge and do something with it. So its mostly under her direction, but I’ll be chiming in here and there on various topics.
Anyway, its Friday, and I sorta assumed that something would going on tonight. Last weekend Joe mentioned throwing a celebratory gathering to celebrate my book deal. But he’s currently in Kentucky working with Jeral on a comic book project, and wouldn’t be back till the first of February. And I’ll still be in Washington at that point. Oh well… its been a long and stressful week (for reasons I won’t go into online, but anyone who’s had to deal with me all this week knows how cranky I’ve been), so I think MK & I are just gonna chill out tonight (or maybe drag MK to WIllamsburg for a chiptunes show… its about time she finally checked one out).
